A woman who already has 19 children is about to welcome her twentieth – revealing that she doesn’t plan on stopping and sees motherhood as a business.
Martha, from Medellin, Colombia, is only 39 and wants to continue having children until her body physically cannot conceive anymore – even if she doesn’t know who has fathered her brood.
Seventeen members of the giant family are under 18 years old, with Martha receiving financial support from her government for each child.
‘I see being a mom like a business, practically,’ Martha, who has conceived all of her kids with different men, said.
However, the busy mom says because she has so many children, the money she receives barely covers the cost of raising and caring for them.
‘The truth is, as the government helps me for each child, I receive a little money for each one,’ she explained.
Martha said she gets the equivalent of $76 for her eldest children and around $30.50 for the youngest ones.
It means that each month, the Colombian state pays her around $510 to care for her children.
Martha also receives help from the local church and her neighbors, accusing the absent fathers of her children as being ‘irresponsible.’
However, she admits life in the small three-bedroom house can be very challenging, with the eldest child having to sleep on the sofa.
Martha said she sometimes struggles to provide adequate meals for everyone on a limited budget.
She said she will continue to have children until her ‘body doesn’t allow it,’ as her current crop will ‘leave home when they grow up.’
Despite having a staggering amount of children, Martha says she will continue to have more kids because it is ‘profitable’ for her.
Last year, a single mom of 13 went viral after revealing she needed her 23-year-old daughter’s help to help buy a house for her brood.
Veronica Merritt was tired of the ‘crappy little house’ her family was forced to inhabit, but couldn’t afford a larger space due to being on a single income.
So when the 37-year-old came across a large house on Craigslist, she was willing to ‘do anything’ to get her family into it.
Her eldest daughter, 23, pitched in $10,000 by combining her savings, tax return, and stimulus so that the family could purchase the house.
Many have called her situation ‘sad’ and criticized her for not being able to support her large family by herself, however Veronica later clarified she paid her daughter back within a year of borrowing the money.
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